Reno air race crash, over 75 injured

[Hollow]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/16/national/main20107634.shtml


Bad news, hopefully there are no deaths in this situation.

 

[Keef]

The pilot is the first death. Too bad because he was an important figure in private aviation. But that's a chance you take and sometimes things happen. I'd rather be in a plane than a car when it comes to safety, for sure.

 

[Coxis]

Oh no!

I mourn the dead and injured, but I also lament the loss of such a remarkable plane. Surely not many Mustangs in flying condition exist...

 

[CMvan46]

Yeah just saw this on CNN when it happened. I feel for the families affected. Hope for the best for all those injured.

 

[McLaren]

So far, it looks like there have been 2 deaths reported.

Best of luck to the others & a speedy recovery.

 

[Lain]

That is unfortunate.

 

[Mike Rotch]

That's terrible; firstly for the loss of life and injury, and secondly the loss of a priceless aircraft

 

[W3H5]

That's terrible; firstly for the loss of life and injury, and secondly the loss of a priceless aircraft

Second that. I just read the Yahoo! article about it. What a tragedy.

 

[Keef]

An acrobatic pilot of the Trojan Horsemen team, probably Jack "Flash" Mangan, crashed during an airshow in West Virginia today.

That makes for the fourth crash I've heard news of in the last two weeks.

 

[disinfected]

This has to be the worst year for air shows/demonstrations in a long time. There were the two crashes this weekend, the Red Arrows crash and Bryan Jensen's crash on August 20th, wing walker Todd Green fell from a plane on August 21st, two air show crashes in July and one in June that thankfully didn't have any deaths, Amanda Franklin died after a crash in March, and in April two pilots died in an F-18 crash practicing for an air show.

 

[PHCharls]

R.I.P to the people who died in the accident.

 

[Mike Rotch]

Based on my rudimentary understanding of flight control and this:

I am guessing he was either flying level when the tail-elevators/ flaps broke off and pitched him straight into the ground, or he was doing some sort of dive, the rear elevators broke off and eliminated any chance of pulling out of the dive.

I couldnt understand how he hit the ground with such an eruption of dirt/ debris. The latter could explain it.

 

[Spacegoat]

What a terrible tragedy, my heart goes out to all the families affected.

 

[DQuaN]

Based on my rudimentary understanding of flight control and this:

I am guessing he was either flying level when the tail-elevators/ flaps broke off and pitched him straight into the ground, or he was doing some sort of dive, the rear elevators broke off and eliminated any chance of pulling out of the dive.

I couldnt understand how he hit the ground with such an eruption of dirt/ debris. The latter could explain it.

From the video I've seen the plane rolled on to it's back and then dived into the ground. They are saying that the pilot reported a mechanical failure.

 

[dxm8975]

Based on my rudimentary understanding of flight control and this:

I am guessing he was either flying level when the tail-elevators/ flaps broke off and pitched him straight into the ground, or he was doing some sort of dive, the rear elevators broke off and eliminated any chance of pulling out of the dive.

I couldnt understand how he hit the ground with such an eruption of dirt/ debris. The latter could explain it.

It's unlikely that the pilot "intentionally" attempted to get his plane down to a very low altitude just to entertain or surprise the spectators present at the scene or for his self delight, at the point that they're aware how jeopardous their performance is - considering another factor if the loss of a tail tab isn't contributed to the accident - the removal of edges of the wings could render the aircraft manuerverable itself and increase its mobility, also meaning it makes the plane unsteady in its flight raising the risk of an aerial accident.

When he lost control during his performance he didn't have enough altitude - making the collision inevitable for him and are spectators being involved in the crash.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

More footage from the crash. But be warned - it's incredibly intense; it clearly shows the point of impact.

 

[Smallhorses]

Looked awful.
I was worried for my colleague, he usually attends this as air-crew for a P-51 racer. Spoke to him today, and their plane didn't race this year, but he's flown with that pilot in the past and is understandably sad about this. It's a shame he died, but he did it doing what he loved, and a tragedy that he's taken 9 others with him as it's something no-one would ever have wished for.
I did see a news report which raised questions about the pilot's age, which struck me as nonsense having seen the photo of the missing piece of tail-flap moments before the crash. At that altitude, and that speed, it doesn't matter if you're a fit, healthy, 20-something modern day fighter pilot or a 74 year-old veteran, there's just not enough reaction time or control you could regain to avoid anything other than the inevitable collision with the ground and whatever happened to be on the ground at the time.

 

[Rue]

Seeing that video, I can't believe more people weren't killed or injured. It's quite incredible really. A very tragic occurrence and a reminder in that anything involving machinery like this has the inherent danger.